The Retail Journey
Welcome to the Retail Journey where we will cover important topics, interview industry stakeholders, and address emerging trends as we journey through our mission of helping our listeners thrive in retail. Your hosts for this show are CEO James Harris and CGO Charles Greathouse.
The Retail Journey
Price Beats Fluff: Navigating Inflation on Retail Shelves with Brooke Hardin
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Inflation is squeezing consumer paychecks, forcing shoppers to trade down to smaller pack sizes and private labels just to get by. Navigating this hyper-competitive landscape requires immediate adaptability because retail space is earned every single day. Brooke Hardin, an experienced entrepreneur who has spent 15 years navigating the Walmart ecosystem from store leadership development to the broker side, breaks down exactly how small brands can survive and scale in this environment.
We sit down to unpack the tactical blueprint for modern supplier success. Our conversation covers the strict execution of the sundown rule, optimizing the digital shelf via ecom penetration, budgeting for search spend through Walmart Connect, and utilizing clean data visuals to tell an immediate story. Brooke also shares her unique philosophy on why the best vendor meetings involve closing the PowerPoint entirely to prioritize organic dialogue.
The operational reality of retail means managing tight margin windows and holding partners to incredibly high standards. You will walk away from this episode with a system for auditing your price slope against the rest of the market and a framework for asking buyers open-ended questions that uncover their true category pain points.
If you care about retail supply chains, category management, and strategic brand growth, you’ll get a lot from this. Please remember to Subscribe and Share. Let us know in the comments: What is the single biggest question you need to start asking your buyers to truly understand their margin pressure?
Meet Brooke Harden: Retail Entrepreneur
Speaker 1Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey podcast . I'm one of your hosts , charles Greathouse .
Speaker 2And I am James Harris , and today we're talking to Brooke Harden . Brooke is somebody I've worked with for a lot of years and is , more importantly , just a very , very good friend , and I've been looking forward to this conversation for a long time . Thank , you . Welcome to the Retail Journey Brooke .
Speaker 3I appreciate it . Thanks for having me .
Speaker 2So for the few people that might be listening to this that haven't met you , tell us about yourself .
Speaker 3Yeah , so I've been calling on Walmart in some aspect for 15 years . Really , the basis of the success is I would call myself an entrepreneur . I get to help these small brands within Walmart move the needle , figure out the big questions , the little questions , and I do a lot of stuff on the side too . My husband and I have a real estate and do RV parks and have a bike shop . So we just came together and we said , when we're old and gray , we don't want to regret not doing something . So we've opened every door and in my career , you know , I always say that failure is the most information rich data stream you can ever get . And so we failed . But we've opened every door and it's , you know , come with great lessons . But you know what a blessing that we live in this part of Arkansas where we have all these opportunities and we all have , you know , great talent and all these suppliers and Walmart with all of these stores . You know it's such an anomaly that we get to do what we do where we do it .
Speaker 2Yeah , I heard this fact this week . Assuming it's a fact , assuming it's true that Northwest Arkansas has the highest per capita number of fortune 500 companies , Second only to New York city .
Speaker 3Wow .
Speaker 2Well , if you think about that , that's , that's opportunity , like why would you leave this ? Why would you leave Exactly ?
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah . When did you get here ?
Speaker 3into this world .
Speaker 1Yeah , or it's a Northwest Arkansas , that's fair . I'm like which way are we going with this ?
Speaker 3I started in 2010 . I originally started with Acosta and their leadership development program , where you work in stores . You have a territory , and so everything comes back to execution right . You have a territory and so everything comes back to execution right . Worked on the vendor side and then am now on the broker side .
Speaker 1Yeah , so from Northwest Arkansas , or originally , or you came here for work From Northwest Arkansas . Cool .
Speaker 3Grew up in Fort .
Speaker 1Smith Gotten to see a lot of change , all the growth Over the years . Yeah . Rvs and bikes .
Speaker 3I'd love to hear some origin story on uh getting into the rv world . Um , fun fact , I've never actually been rving , but I know how to read a pnl this is good you know , a lot of boomers are selling their businesses , and this was a boomer who , um was aging out . He built it himself and , um , I've wanted to get into them for about four years and , uh , we were going to build one out um put that on the back burner and thought , okay , let's buy one first and not just start from scratch .
Speaker 3And saw the opportunity , read the P&L and then also saw the opportunity on the property to add an additional quite a few spots to build it out . So it's a math equation . You look at anything in real estate and you go . The math works .
Speaker 1It's a math equation . It's a good question to ask . There's lots of scenarios where the question should be asked does the math , math Does ?
Speaker 3the math , math . Well , my husband uses ish numbers and I use an Excel spreadsheet .
Speaker 2I worked with your husband for a couple of years and he loves the ish number .
Speaker 3And it always works out . We're like within . I swear $10,000 of each other every time which is so irritating ?
Speaker 1Yeah , because you spend a lot of time . Bottoms up forecast .
Speaker 2Some people's guts work better than others .
Speaker 3He's just got that good math in his head and it works .
Speaker 1That's really funny .
Speaker 3Yeah , so that's how we got into RV parks .
Speaker 2That's cool . Yeah , covid was a pretty terrible time overall , but it was kind of boom times for certain segments , certain industries and . Rvs sold like crazy during that time , so now it's either parked or you're using it . Right . So it makes sense that that would be a… .
Speaker 3Yeah , it's been interesting to learn . You know we're on water , so water , you know having attraction always helps . But yeah , we've been in the mud for about six months building this thing , getting dirty .
Speaker 1Awesome . So where is it ? I have to ask .
Speaker 3It is in between Greenland and West Fork .
Speaker 1Okay , cool .
Speaker 3Yeah , should I plug it ?
Speaker 1It is beautiful , absolutely . Plug away .
Speaker 3Skipping Rock RV Park .
Speaker 2Skipping Rock RV Park , If I ever get an RV we'll come , stay there , you're going to come Come join us .
Speaker 1That's amazing . When I take my first RV trip , I'll call you .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's awesome . So , like I said , we've worked together and you're known for I know you for tenaciously solving problems and great customer service . Yeah , where does that come from ?
Speaker 3Yeah , great question and it's really hit me um hit me hard this past year . So , um I have had a great um mentor , father , um leader in my and I lost him this past year . I lost my father , yeah . Um .
Speaker 3I had the opportunity to care for him in his last year and , um , I feel this great responsibility of the things that he had taught , that he's taught me , and so , um , as he was passing , I sat there and I thought
Life Lessons from Father's Legacy
Speaker 3it doesn't matter how much money this man has in the bank account , you know he was very successful and entrepreneur and I sat there and I looked at his life and I was like it was how well he served his neighbor .
Speaker 3It was how well he served his customers . It was people . I would listen to him come home from work . I would listen to him be on the phone with his customers and he cared . He cared about their kids , he cared about if the project was done , how it was going . He just cared really well and he had great customer service . So , as I lost him in the process of losing him and looking at his life , it's just given me a great glimpse of life to look at differently , that you know we are so blessed to have great brands coming in and out of this area . Um , we get to sit in these quick meetings but , um , it's about people the people make it happen .
Speaker 3And I pulled this Sam Walton quote because it says if you'll take care of your employees , your employees will take care of your customers and your business will take care of itself . Simple , right . Like we get so stressed out about so many things in this industry , Like we get so stressed out about so many things in this industry , but at the end of the day , it's the people .
Speaker 3And you can't lose sight of that , I think . And so , as I was , I've been sitting with , all you know , a heavy year , you could call it , and I think you could sit in it or you could go . You know what would this man want me to walk with , as he's left me with , and it's really been that customer service , the care , the people I feel really responsible for when I leave somebody I've met or a buying meeting , you know . Thank you , Thank you for your time . I mean , these buyers are busier than they've ever been .
Speaker 3Arguably one of the harder jobs over there . You've got so many masters . I don't know how they get through all the emails .
Speaker 2It's been years since Charles was a buyer and he didn't get through all the emails .
Speaker 1I still have emails for sure in my inbox . They're left . Are they ?
Speaker 3unread Charles and they're unread 100% 100% .
Speaker 1Oh , that's funny .
Speaker 3Oh , um , you know they're trying to predict the future , essentially . Yeah .
Speaker 3Um , so you know , I I don't , I don't know if they get enough appreciation for you know what they're doing . So , um , you know , great customer service is so important in every aspect , um , and I think that's something that I don't take lightly and I've really thought about . You know , I think the buzzword is , if you ask somebody how they're doing , we all love to say busy now , right . So when you're talking on the phone with the buyers , you know I'm not at length , talking to them for 30 minutes or an hour , like I know I've got to get there . You know , ask them how they're doing , you know any relative question , but you have to be sensitive to time but also care within that short time period .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's a caring thing to have a bullet point . You know the specific thing that's needed , the action that's required . Yeah , some of those details , sorry for your loss . Yeah , and what a legacy , though .
Speaker 2Thank you , I feel Life well lived .
Speaker 3Yeah , we got to really think about 10 to 20 years worth of life in a year . He was in a nursing home up here and my husband is so amazing and he would say we're going to pick up your dad and we're going to go to Chuck E Cheese today . I was like , okay , you know , there were days that all he wanted to do was drive his car and he couldn't drive his car , so we took him to ride go-karts y'all . Wow , that's amazing .
Speaker 3It was a beautiful thing , but it does make you realize each day is a blessing and to really show up and try hard and care . I think that's what we're trying to instill in our kids .
Speaker 2Absolutely . I was having a conversation with somebody this week on a similar topic and made the comment that we're all going to end up on a bed and that's going to be the last place . We are Right , yeah , and I don't know anybody that asked for their files or their computer or their awards . They're asking for the people in their life that matter , yeah .
Speaker 3At my dad's funeral , a consistent message was that he was a great neighbor .
Speaker 2Wow , that's cool .
Speaker 3It's so simple to be a great neighbor , right To show up for your community , and so I've thank you for that , charles . Yeah . It was . But I'm left with . I've got big things to do , right like . I've got love to share . I've got knowledge to share , which is why I'm here with you guys today , so he wouldn't want me to be stuck in the past , so that's kind of where I've left with it's about people and helping people and being real .
Speaker 1I deeply appreciate conversations that go to the deep end . I appreciate you going there . It's quite a bit shallower to talk through . Okay , what are the tactical things that help in the day job ?
Speaker 1But at the end of the day , that's where we that is where we spent the day , you know was was at work and working with others and grateful for the many different relationships I've been able to to start the many more that are yet to come , and being able to honor people as you you walk through and help each other and achieve common goals is a is a huge blessing .
Speaker 3Yeah , absolutely .
Speaker 2So kind of on that vein of moving to our day jobs , very basic question how can a supplier be really successful with Walmart ?
Speaker 3Yeah , it's a great question , right the million-dollar question .
Speaker 1There's just one answer ,
Keys to Walmart Supplier Success
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 4Brooke , we're ready . There are only three answers . There's three , all Okay . Brooke , we're ready . There are only three answers .
Speaker 3There's three , all right , let's go In the simplest form , I mean the sundown rule , right .
Speaker 2Nice , yeah , the sundown rule . I haven't heard that term in a while .
Speaker 3I haven't heard it either , and that's why , when I was thinking about this today , I was like I don't hear it anymore .
Speaker 2I wonder if some of the younger positions know of that rule I was just about to say for anybody that relatively new to the industry , the sundown rule is one of Sam Walton's rules that if you had an email , a phone call , a request , it got answered before the sun went down .
Speaker 3And you don't have to have the answer necessarily , but you have to say , hey , I'm working on it or I'm going to talk to so-and-so and I'll get back with you in two days or whatever . But it's a standard that I hold myself to , it's a standard that I hold my suppliers to and it's simple . It's great communication really at the core of it . An email , a text , a phone call but it's just the sundown rule . It's saying that you're a great communicator and there's things within Walmart that a buyer may have the trickle effect if they have to communicate it to somebody else internally . So I think you're also thinking outside of yourself , outside of who they might have to report to . Definitely the sundown rule . I mean it's not overly complicated . You know , it's kind of that basic blocking and tackling . And then the second thing is great email communication , like you know it should never be paragraphs .
Speaker 3It should never be paragraphs . It should never be paragraphs Like if you need something finished , it should be bullet points , Never long-winded If you're following up with a third or fourth time with a buyer . These buyers have so many emails .
Speaker 2So true .
Speaker 3You're changing your email subject . Is it time sensitive ? Is this my second follow-up ? It's great email communication because we're reading things quickly , we're on our phones and we're not writing essays on emails because you know you've lost me . After sentence three .
Speaker 2There's an awesome tool now that I wish I had 20 years ago , but chat GPT . Do you use that ?
Speaker 3at all for email writing yes , drop it in there , make it short and concise , yeah that would have been a fun one as a merchant .
Speaker 1It's probably overwhelming guilt inside of me , but I just want to talk to my suppliers . I'm really sorry I didn't follow the sundown rule . It's probably overwhelming guilt inside of me , but I just want to talk to my suppliers . I'm really sorry I didn't follow the Sundown rule . I had one Sundown rule folder and I had sort of interpreted the email structure of every store operator and so I had a rule where if it was strwalmartcom that it would be in my went my sundown folder . I would answer those by the end of the day . But for the many emails that I have still yet to answer from you know , the was it six years ago . I was a merchant .
Speaker 1I'm really sorry , sorry about that deleted yeah , so that rule , I just delete that folder every you're killing the sundown rule now .
Speaker 2Yeah , so now it's definitely one of those you you see and understand I think yesterday was the sun up and sundown day , wasn't it spent some good time on ?
Speaker 1the keys yesterday just , but that's uh . You know , that is part of where it goes and it's also deeply affirming to hear the comments on you know bullet points and emails . Structure matters because I feel like such an over lurking leader when I'm coaching someone through how that should be written . Because I know how eyes track . I know what will actually get done . A subject line of here you go will actually get done . A subject line of here you go never works .
Speaker 3It keeps you up at night , doesn't it ?
Speaker 1The subject line has to just be the shortest version of what exactly I actually am trying to say , and so grateful for that kind of precision .
Speaker 3What does it hit you now , with all of the subjects line saying external , internal , know , oh , yeah , yeah , it's bothering me yeah , because I I just read one this morning .
Speaker 1Um , I feel like I'm a trustworthy guy . You should be on the inside , um no I just I just feel like I'm a trustworthy guy and this is a client , so it's not the walmart side , it's like external , and Charles at highimpactanalyticscom doesn't email you very often . So you should read this Treat with great caution and I'm just kind of like , oh , your email carrier is being rude . I don't know what I have to do to build trust with your machine , but could you just read it with some optimism .
Speaker 3Maybe you should ask at GPT .
Speaker 1Okay , how can I get whoever this guy's carrier is ?
Speaker 2to . It wasn't your domain , it was the words you used . Maybe it was .
Speaker 1Yeah , I don't know about this guy and it is funny to see now the you know siri summary uh , it's not called siri . Uh , apple intelligence summary of emails and the the action items that it reflects on your phone , and then when you read the email , it's like that was not it ? Um , so they still need to work on how they how they read .
Speaker 2You kind of started in the broker world , went to the vendor world , back to the broker world . You've either been in or worked with what ? Hundred suppliers over the years probably somewhere around there all across the , except for apparel .
Speaker 2Yeah , and the kind of companies we work with . They tend to be like we're getting them into Walmart right . Let's talk a little bit about that . Getting in is one thing , year two is harder , year three is the hardest . Of the suppliers you've worked with or worked in that have done the best . How does a company , a small company , specifically align itself to really serve Walmart Well ?
Speaker 3yeah , right , like responsible growth . So it's like starting in your
Email Communication and Meaningful Growth
Speaker 3. You know the dream is going to Walmart and getting 4,500 stores right , but it's also can be a nightmare because you're backtracking and that P&L doesn't look so great . So really it's responsible growth and so it it . It's looking , you know , where are your markets , where you're , where you're performing really well , where is that BDI , that brand , really high ? And so , going somewhere in the depth of what does 1,500 , 2,000 doors look like ?
Speaker 2Because that's like several chains outside of Walmart , which is a home run . It's a home run .
Speaker 3It's still a home run and managing those expectations right , and so , then , making sure you're supporting it Like it's still a home run , in managing those expectations Right , and so , then , making sure you're supporting it . You have all the lenses of Walmartcom covered . Making sure your price slope is right to rest of market . Making sure that your value on shelf or your competition what does that look like ?
Speaker 2I think , more than ever this past year with inflation , we've learned price right like woof , like yeah , price matters , saying people are buying small pack sizes towards the end of a month because of money I've seen the data available .
Speaker 3Yeah , I get it it's eye-opening yeah , um , what private meant .
Speaker 3you know the transfer to private label and the growth there . So you know , just keeping your eye on really what price looks like on that shelf and so , yeah , it's the get in , it's the stay in and then it's the grow . And I think with that is just great communication up front with your supplier and within Walmart . You know what is that buyer looking for for you . On velocity , do you think you can hit it and then you get in ? How are you managing those expectations ? Are you hitting it ? Why aren't you hitting it ?
Speaker 3Do we need to dial into , you know , price or rollback or things like that . It's effectively communicating . Really , in that first year of , are we hitting your hurdles ? Because if you're not , then it's you don't want to manage it . Too late , right .
Speaker 1And that window's pretty tight .
Speaker 3It's a tight window right .
Speaker 2It's valuable space and you have to earn it every day every single day .
Speaker 3Nothing's guaranteed anymore . Um , new brands are coming in left and right and private labels growing left and right . That shelf space is growing , so , um , you've got to keep running the race and being meaningful on the shelf and innovating . The days of the same item , the same size , the same packaging , the same marketing strategy is over . I think we're constantly faced with social media and influencers now , and how are you playing within that space ? And I think that space can be a little bit smoke and mirrory . Um , so I think that's something that I'm learning and figuring out in that space .
Speaker 3There's great people in this area that are doing it and that can help with that . Spending on com . That's never going to be something that we don't say again . Right , with Walmart Connect . So , having that budget for it and having it on the front end and knowing that when your suppliers are budgeting with Walmart , that that has to be a part of it . Now I think that that marketing budget within Walmart for each supplier is probably getting a little thicker , from my opinion , for these small suppliers than it has been in the past .
Speaker 2You have to get noticed .
Speaker 1Well , it's like I don't know it kind of originally , was literally showed up as a store number in DSS , which has sort of helped my thought process of being like this is Walmart's top store and now it's growing to like no , it should be . You had a merchant tell me this morning 25% of their business is what the objective is for e-com penetration . So okay , what if 25% of the stores are being treated this poorly ? What do you need to do to fix that , to make sure that things are where they should be ? You mentioned real estate early on . You're in some of that when you think of a PDP without any sort of search spend . It's like having a house for sale and all you've done is put like a little paper sign in front of the house . You know there's no traffic , it's out farmland . It's a big size .
Speaker 1Right , it means it's never going to be found . You have to pay for search , you have to get customers to find the PDP before it's , then in the sort of traffic wheel , if you would .
Speaker 3I feel like a lot of people don't get it and our habits have changed right Arguably , would . I feel like a lot of people don't get it changed right arguably , like we're doing more grocery pickup more online shopping . So I get it . The times are changing , how we're shopping is changing , so how we're marketing and how we're spending has to change . Yep , competition is good , competition is healthy . So um , it's not just google anymore we're Ask Jeeves , isn't that where we started ? I think so . When was the last time you heard that ?
Speaker 2It's been a while , oh yeah .
Speaker 3Walmartcom and Amazon can be search engines . Now is what you hear , right , yeah ?
Speaker 2Analytics is big in our background
Data Storytelling and Supplier Strategies
Speaker 2as a company . How do you work with data to tell a story , to move the needle , to maybe overcome an obstacle ?
Speaker 3I think with data , it's important to have visuals . You can have a spreadsheet all day long , but you visually have to be able to tell that story really quick so they can grasp it . Does it look like a heat map ? Does it look like a bar graph ? I know it sounds simple , but it's all in the visuals of that data and how you're showing it to the supplier and to Walmart , to the supplier and to Walmart , but it's visually , I think , representing that data to where it's easily digestible .
Speaker 3We've lost a little bit of it with the new Walmart data package . We've lost market baskets and a little bit of that data demographic data that I thought was meaningful . So we're working around not having all the bells and whistles of retail link but at the end of the day , other retailers don't have the data that Walmart has . So , we're still in a great position to have what we have . Go to another retailer and you're kind of a little blind .
Speaker 1Well , if you've had the conversation and it's clear what we're doing is growing the category with a merchant . Then there's a lot of collaboration as far as filling in the gaps . Am I pointing the right direction ? Am I looking at the right thing ? I mentioned e-com penetration , and this is with a supplier that doesn't have visibility to their e-com penetration . So we're we have to have some merchant collaboration on like . Your goal is here Great . Where are we today ? And we'll keep following up and tracking down as we work through how to close those gaps .
Speaker 3So I think there's good questions too that you can ask that are more broad . Like tell me a range of a target , right ? Yeah , am I meaningful ? Some of this data , like you're saying , isn't propped up to us anymore , but I think there's still great questions . You know , ask great questions If they can't answer them , that's okay , but I still , if they can't answer them , that's okay . But I still , like you're saying , like you know , am I meaningful on com ? What's the range ?
Speaker 3You know , I think there's a lot of questions that buyers can't answer and you don't want to blur that line , yeah , but I think asking great questions of you know , am I hitting my hurdle rates ? Am I being meaningful on Walmartcom ? You know , is there anything you're feeling pressure from on your side that I need to go back within my organization and check with ? I think we seldom forget that these buyers also have people they report to and objectives and bosses and margin targets right , like we come to the table and we're negotiating in its products , but we forget that there's a bigger picture that everything has to roll up to and then roll up again , right . So I don't think it goes without saying the pressure that they're feeling on their side , even with tariffs . To hit something and grow and make it be meaningful is important .
Speaker 1It feels like the easiest thing for me to do when things get complex is all right . How simple can I make the problem we're trying to solve ?
Speaker 1It all comes back to a customer at some point . We're both very much aligned on solving customer problems in a way that engenders loyalty . Loyalty in retail is like an absence of a better alternative , be it quality , price , availability , convenience . So it's a matter of earning that customer loyalty day in , day out and being able to focus on all right . Where are you seeing customers delighted ? Where are you having customers get disappointed ? What things have you seen that have made you reconsider how you're approaching the category ? And those kinds of questions allow us , on the side of without full visibility to the category , understanding what's working , what's not working , which we'll be trying to replicate versus risks we need to go mitigate in a category . As customers keep shifting and competitors within retail other retailers are out there also changing their strategy and finding different ways to approach customers .
Speaker 3You know when we have our meetings with Walmart and our line reviews . You know you've got 30 minutes right . Right . And it goes by so quick it feels like 10 . But don't forget to take that first five minutes to let them talk , because that then should gear the rest of your time . You know , like you're saying what's happening in your category , what are your pain points ? You're right . I mean , if I was a new supplier coming into Walmart like open up with questions , don't just dig into this PowerPoint so quickly .
Speaker 1Which is hard because you spent a lot of time on that PowerPoint and you're ready to just , you know , talk about it and and the meeting . You know 30 minutes , which is great . The first two minutes we're getting the previous vendor out of that out of that room . Trying to get into the room .
Speaker 2That's been one of the hardest learned lessons of my life . I mean to ask questions versus making statements . I mean it took way too many years for it to break through . I mean in sales , yes , but marriage relationships with having children . If you're stating you're not listening , and that was the thing that finally kind of broke through to me and everybody I want to be listened to , Everybody wants to be listened to . Took me way too long , but now I'm a believer .
Speaker 3I love that . I started it with my six-year-old boy . I've started saying , hey , is there anything I can do better ? Just opening it up , being in the mind of a six-year-old . I said that the other night . I was like , hey , is there anything I can do better ? He goes . Yeah , I needed to print off more birthday invitations . I handed them all out
Asking Questions Creates Valuable Conversations
Speaker 3.
Speaker 1I was like you got it , buddy , but you're right like opened ended questions .
Speaker 3Right can lead you down so many topics that you don't even didn't even arguably know that they were out there yeah , yeah , rewind back to .
Speaker 1You know early stage brooke , give her some advice . What are the questions she might ask entering into this retail space ?
Speaker 3Some questions I would ask buyers .
Speaker 1Yeah , you would tell Brooke too .
Speaker 3Yeah , that's a great question . I would start with talking about the category . So , tell me what you're seeing within the category . I would say tell me your top three objectives over this next year . What are your margin targets ? I would say what's your pain point , what's not working ?
Speaker 1I'd love to hear if you can recall some of your first meetings . Are those the questions you asked ?
Speaker 3You were probably one of my first meetings . Yeah , how did it go ? You were probably early on . Yeah , calling on you .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 3Ask me that question again .
Speaker 1Did you ask those questions ? Do you have any ? Always been a great question , oh good , asker I will tell you .
Speaker 3It is what I would call . My superpower is I'm , I , I , I . I don't necessarily love to do all the talking , I love to do the question asking so being a podcast guest has been great I'm out of my comfort zone , but I'm here to share my knowledge You're crushing .
Speaker 1It's great , thank you .
Speaker 3I'm about to switch roles and ask you the questions .
Speaker 1Yeah , turn around , we're good Can we change seats .
Speaker 3Yeah , let's pause for a second .
Speaker 1Everybody on the couch now .
Speaker 3You know you think earlier on in your career of calling on Walmart and to be totally vulnerable , you would , I would get so nervous . Oh yeah .
Speaker 3Like you know , I know everything , I'd study , I'd study , I'd study , you know . And then you write notes on everything and you kind of get those bubbles in your stomach . I would give anything to have bubbles in my stomach and nervous jitters before a meeting . Nowadays I'm just like I guess after 15 or whatever years you've had everything thrown at you in some capacity where you're just like well , we can figure it out in some way .
Speaker 1Yeah , and your client , the supplier , whose first time here is just so nervous it's over whose first time here is just so nervous it's over , you know , or thinks that everything is like they're getting . You know all the entire line 4,500 stores , exclusive rights to one P .
Speaker 3You know like no , no , no , no . I'm going to click that . I'm going to fix that expectation , yeah .
Speaker 2Oh , that's fine . I was always in a sales organization , but I started in analytics , like most people do these days . So my first actual sales job of carrying a bag was with Unilever at Target , and I don't know how many meetings line reviews I had , and I walked in for a 30 minute meeting with 30 minutes worth of talking points , points , um , and it targets a little different where you can like have a meal you know with , with somebody that works there in a way that's unique to walmart . Um , and it was when I was having my monthly lunch with one of my larger buyer that bought the majority of what I sold . That's when I started asking questions and all of a sudden , we've established this rapport . We've got projects that we're pursuing , like the growth went from this to this , you know , and it completely changed the way I walked into a meeting . I went from 30 slides to 10 . Yeah .
Speaker 3Yeah , my dream meeting is probably not even opening up the slides .
Speaker 2Exactly .
Speaker 3It's the conversation back and forth that gets to the core of what they want to talk about and it gets to the core of their issues . That's my dream meeting is where you don't even open up the PowerPoint You've got . You know your talking points , you know your products , you know your price points and then you have that open dialogue . Right , it's an organic meeting . It's what conversation and banter back and forth is supposed to be , like um , but we've gotten just a little robotic and a little bit um company oriented to where you know we have these long presentations and they're needed , like there are times when they're needed , but I , I . There's nothing I love more than the when you have these meetings and you get that flow of conversation that is meaningful and unscripted .
Speaker 1Yeah yeah , I was dropping off a updated artwork of a new item sample and sometimes for timing , it's required that I know we're doing that in person . I got to go , I have to , but mostly just really enjoy being able to have a conversation .
Speaker 1I know that season when you're in the layout center and it's very busy , but also sometimes you need to come up for air and kind of see the world around you and enjoyed 30 minutes of just talking through some strategic initiatives , pressure in the business where we see things going , and I think that comes from . I don't think there's a love of retail at the root of that . I think it's a love of just helping people . And once you've been in retail and you start to understand what that looks like , you can't shop the same . James to your point earlier now .
Speaker 1You look at the . What do I see ? What items have I had any kind of influence on ? You look at strategies . As you walk through the aisles . You don't visit any retail shop or what's made it even harder now is website , because I can do a comp shop between meetings with just a site , walk of somebody's site and you're just always collecting little signals of what's working , what's not working , and it's hard to process those in a structured presentation . That's part of kind of the joy of collaborative problem solving and probably the thing I miss the most is just being a merchant talking with other merchants and other players on the team . All right , what are you seeing how are you attacking this issue ?
Speaker 1Yeah , because you're all in it together right , yeah you're probably , in some aspect , experiencing some of the same woes yeah um , and so that price pressure you know exists across the box and if someone's doing a terrible job of stewarding it , I always blame the Gatorade , like sorry Isotonix merchant when I was there . But , like you know , they raised their price to close a quarter Like great . Now the customer has less , like $1.50 less , and I'm in a category where you might not have to have it but you did have to have hydration for the you know the games this weekend , and so there is this very communal like we're fighting for the same thing . What's it look like ?
Speaker 3I think everybody really feels that way , though more than ever right Over these past two years , with all of the inflation , um , I , I feel it certainly Um , and I know that the Walmart buyers probably have felt it more than ever , because that paycheck is spread , it's being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed .
Speaker 2In my career , we've had a few recessions , but we've never had this kind of inflation , which is , I think , harder on people and harder to manage than even an economic downturn .
Speaker 3And we haven't even experienced tariffs like this . Right yeah . So it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next year with this .
Speaker 1It's going to be creative
Price Pressure and Meditation Insights
Speaker 1problem solving , without a doubt you got a rock and a hard place .
Speaker 3Put that on your resume , yeah .
Speaker 2We have taken a tremendous amount of your time , so we'll bring it to the lightning round and let you get back to all of the fun stuff you're going to do today .
Speaker 3I enjoyed the time , thank you . Yeah , appreciate it .
Speaker 2So , um , you know you talked about failure being the best um teacher . If you look back over your career or it could be personal that applies to career . What's the what's one of the things that stands out of you know , stubbing your toe but you really learned something from it .
Speaker 3I think , when you're choosing the people , that you're partnering with have really high expectations of them . Yeah , Because if you're not a hundred percent sold , there's not a day that you're going to be a hundred percent sold . Yeah . So it's just you know have high expectations of the people that you partner with , have high expectations of the people that you work with . Yeah , so it's just you know have high expectations of the people that you partner with , have high expectations of the people that you work with . Yeah .
Speaker 3Um , because I certainly want people to have high expectations of me , and I think that's something I've learned over the past two years . Um , yeah , Is you know ?
Speaker 3totally being with . You know good people that make me better that raise that bar . Um , I had picked a arguably a supplier that wasn't doing that for me and you know people can keep you up at night cause you have problems and you want to solve them , but it's different than when they were keeping up for other reasons . So I just think high expectations of people that you're working with and that you're spending time with .
Speaker 1Yeah , at the end of the day , that's the thing that matters is the people you get to invest in and invest in you and you can be both nice and hold people accountable and hold yourself accountable .
Speaker 3Absolutely For sure .
Speaker 1Yeah , they're not . It's the loving thing to do . Truly All right , like content . What are you reading ? What are you listening to ? What ?
Speaker 3are you reading what's inspiring you ? I'm doing a lot of meditation .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 3Something that I've gotten into the past year . I am the busiest body that you will ever meet . I wake up at 4.30 , 5 in the morning . I am bugs , I'm .
Speaker 1Energizer Bunny I'm always going .
Speaker 3I'm always on my feet , so to say that meditation was hard for me is an understatement .
Speaker 1I love that but it's definitely .
Speaker 3I wanted to do something hard that challenged me , that made my brain better , that made me think outside myself . So I've been reading a lot of Eckhart Tolle , like the Power of Now , controlling your Thoughts Be an Observer of your Thoughts a great book . Napoleon Hill Outwitting the Devil great read . So a lot of meditation . I want to be better . I want to show up better . I want to control what's happening in my head .
Speaker 2Books- yeah , I've gotten away from meditation and I need to get back into it . I'm letting the busyness rule .
Speaker 3Yeah , I would say set a timer for five minutes , put your phone down , close your eyes , try to shut down your thoughts . I mean don't have high expectations , start small eyes , try to shut down your thoughts . I mean don't have high expectations . Start small , um , and then you'll crave more and you'll realize that you're meeting problems differently , that you're falling asleep better . Um , so I would . I did not excel at it at first but . I won't go without it , for sure thick knock .
Speaker 2if I'm saying his name right , he's a Vietnamese Buddhist that was exiled to France during the Vietnam War , wrote a number of books and he said there's no such thing as being good at meditation . You can only just meditate .
Speaker 3You can't be bad at it , right yeah ?
Speaker 2He's like as long as you're trying to do it , you're doing it .
Speaker 3It's beautifully said . Yeah , it's beautifully said , it's true .
Speaker 2And then , lastly , biggest learning of the last year , just a real eye-opener .
Speaker 3Learning . I think it's price . When I'm talking about Walmart , I think I've never focused on price more . I think they're doing more rollbacks .
Speaker 2That's come alive again , so you're seeing a lot of rollbacks .
Speaker 3But I think it's really about price , like keeping price where it's at squeezing margin a little bit on our side , if we can , just because you don't want to take that price up in this environment . So I'd say over 2024 , it's been price .
Speaker 4Yeah . Yeah , that makes sense Sam would love that wouldn't he .
Speaker 1Right , I mean what's old is new , and again when it gets complex , the simple truth tends to hold Absolutely .
Speaker 2Thank you so much for joining us . This was fun .
Speaker 3I enjoyed it Awesome .
Speaker 2And thank you for tuning in as always . You can find all of our podcasts , video audio on our website at highimpactanalyticscom , and thank you for joining us .
.png)